This invention is directed to a fastenable or refastenable personal care garment having fasteners on the side panels for ease of removal and donning without complete removal of a wearer's clothing.
Garments with refastenable sides are commonly manufactured so that the fastening components are engaged or prefastened at manufacture. Engaging the fastening component and mating fastening component can involve folding and manipulating the garment, and such folding and manipulating can be difficult and time consuming to accomplish. Garments with refastenable sides can also be prone to poor fastener performance if the side panels are misaligned or tucked into the product in such a way as to cause creasing of a resilient fastening component.
When the refastenable sides include a resilient fastening component such as a hook component, these creases can deaden the hooks, thereby reducing the engageable area. As a result, a creased fastener tends to possess lower peel and/or shear values than uncreased fasteners. Products with severe and/or multiple fastener creases tend to be most apt to pop open during application and wear. Fastener creases appear to be more of an issue for hook components than for loop components due to the possibility of permanent deformation of hook material compared to the relative flexibility of loop material. One potential source of these performance-impairing creases may be the orientation of the panel bearing the resilient fastening component after tucking of the panel and during product compression for packaging.
There is a need or desire to reduce both material and manufacturing costs associated with garments without sacrificing performance and quality. However, this should be accomplished without compromising the performance characteristics of the various regions in the garment.
There is also a need or desire for pant-like, personal care absorbent garments that can be easily and reliably pulled on over a wear's legs and hips.